What baffles me about Plain Spoken is that not one of the people who viewed this film before it was released - director, producer, editor and I assume Mr. Mellencamp - thought to themselves, "What a dumb idea".
Yes, this is two movies in one - a concert film and a biography - but it is the worst of both worlds. You can't hear the music because John is talking and you can't concentrate on what he is saying because you want to hear the song. I kept thinking that this can't be right and that there must be a way to turn off the voiceover, like on DVDs. Nope, that's the way it was intended.
The venue looked great and the band sounded amazing, but John just talks right over them. Even when, on stage between songs, he starts to tell an interesting anecdote that I really wanted to hear the voiceover would come in and drown it out !?! If he was narrating about what was happening on stage, that would be annoying enough, but he does not. They are two completely different things !
John Mellencamp is a very talented and interesting guy, his band is made up of a group of seasoned professionals and, from what I understand, this concert was created specifically for this film - what a waste of all three.
I am an enormous fan of movies about musicians that I admired. With this one I ended up fast forwarding through to try to catch any bits of my favourite songs that I could, until I finally gave up.
A score of one might seem harsh to some of you, but I am just trying to do my part to ensure that nobody thinks this style is a good idea ever again.